Paramount Theater

Temple Buell
1929

An Art Deco theater

Like many theaters during this time period, the Paramount is Art Deco in style, a style perceived as modern and glamorous--thoroughly befitting the new medium of film. Designed by a Denver architect, it is clad in white terra cotta ornament, the work of the Denver Terra Cotta Company. "The main design element derives from the stepped pyramid, or ziggurat, here with Rococo and geometric terra-cotta castings" (Paglia et al 23). See a much more sober version of Art Deco architecture in Eberson's theater in Washington, D. C. and in Lamb's theater in Miami. The most exuberant reprise is seen in Pelli's Googie Cinema in Celebration Florida.